The California Highway Patrol (CHP) says it is investigating a video taken by a passing motorist of one of its officers repeatedly punching a woman in the head after she was allegedly walking along a Los Angeles motorway.

The CHP officer is shown on the video wrestling the woman to the
ground, straddling her and then punching her at least 11 times in
the face.

The violent confrontation was filmed on a cell phone by a music
producer who happened to be passing on Freeway 10 near La Brea
Avenue on Tuesday evening.

The officer is seen trying to arrest the woman, he then struggles
with her briefly before straddling her and punching her hard,
repeatedly in the face. A plainclothes officer then turns up and
helps the uniformed man handcuff her.

David Diaz, the man who filmed the confrontation, told CBS2, a US
TV news channel, that he thought the officer’s behavior was
“excessive and brutal.”

“He just pounded her, if you look at the video, there are 15
hits. To the head, and not just simple jabs. These are blows to
the head. Blows. Really serious blows. I find it hard to believe
there was no other remedy in this situation,” said Diaz.

But CHP Assistant Chief Chris O’Quinn, while not defending the
officers’ conduct, tried to mitigate it and offer an explanation
at a Friday press conference.

He said the woman had been endangering herself and people while
wondering about in traffic. O’Quinn said the incident report did
not list any injuries to the woman, who is undergoing a
psychiatric evaluation.

The video “only shows a small part of what transpired,”
O’Quinn said, adding that “there were events that led up to
this.”

He also noted that Highway Patrol officers have a heightened
sense of the danger of traffic on freeways compared to citizens
who are not used to the speed vehicles travel at.

He insisted that the CHP would answer any concerns from the
community and that a full investigation is already underway and
that as it is ongoing it would be premature to comment on the
video.

“We are known as an agency that really polices itself,”
insisted O’Quinn.

The officer concerned who has not been named is currently on
administrative leave while the investigation is concluded.

Local civil rights leaders have expressed their anger and shock
at the video.

“Speaking for the women of this community, we are angry, we
are upset,” Lita Herron of the Youth Advocacy conference
told AP.